When you say compete do you mean towards the top or towards the bottom? I think if we don't get at least 3 players in who can hit the ground running that we're in a bit of trouble. Especially a striker and a winger.

I've read about 20 posts on here from the last 24hrs debating whether the squad is slightly weaker or slightly stronger than this time last year and it seems to be pretty much a dead heat, very little to choose between, people making arguments either way. How the squad is only marginally stronger (at best) when we have brought in tens of millions over the last couple of seasons is criminal. Where on earth has that money gone?

I think the ticket prices this time will mean fewer home fans will bother. Unless we beat Albion 4-0 away the week before or something. I won't hold my breath

So ~9k season ticket holders, 5k walk-ons, 5k Brummies. Let's knock 1k off coz it's summer holidays. You think there will be ~18k on? I think there's no chance of that myself

All very well fleecing travelling Birmingham fans who will obviously bring a large crowd having the promotion bounce. Problem is that Rovers will probably get charged a reciprocal price for the reverse fixture. I won't be paying £33+ to go to St Andrews, many others won't either. Meaning we'll be backed by about 400 die hards for a fixture only 2hrs away from home. Coz that's what football is all about, rinsing travelling fans 👌

Yes so we're heading into the season with one striker who has a track record of scoring goals. If he gets kicked after 10 mins and is out injured for weeks or months, we're absolutely stuffed.

That's my sneaking worry, I have a feeling we'll implode right at the end of the transfer window, with the likes of Travis and/or Tronstad picked off at last minute as it'll be last chance to get a fee for them and won't be time to get a replacement, then I agree we'll be in big trouble. Especially if we still don't have a striker.

I park my car by Millmoor when I go to Rotherham away. You can walk up and peak through the gaps in the fencing and it's like a weird time warp, it looks like it is falling to bits, but I think it is still used frequently for local sports.

I'm underwhelmed by the home kit, partly because they didn't put much thought into it being an anniversary top, but mainly coz it's not proper blue and white halves or 'quarters', I don't know why they suddenly reverted to that and why the club ok'd it (I do know why, no one at the club gives a toss). I like the green kit a lot, I bought it. I like the colours, design, collar, everything really. I'm not sure about the yellow kit. I think from a distance it might just look like it's got dirt and sweat on it, as others have pointed out. It's not an aberration, it's just nothing too special. I'm surprised how divided we are as a fan base on the shirts, but it's not the end of the world. At least shirt chat is a welcome distraction from everything else going on. At this point, I would take our away kit being claret and blue with a big 💩 emoji on the front for the season if it magically rid us of these owners.

I hope Dolan finds something soon and moves on with his career and does as well as he can. I'm not convinced his ceiling is much higher than our current level, but would be happy to be proved wrong. I don't hold any grudge against him, he never developed as much as I hoped he would at Ewood, but he always worked his arse off every time he played. He may not be worth as much in wages as he thinks he is, but that's probably true of most footballers, you have to back yourself and show ambition. I don't know how much we've offered him but I wouldn't be surprised if our offer was beyond the pale and insulting. I think there's a reason so many players are letting their contract run down here or desperately being linked elsewhere in the media via their agents. It's probably somewhere between us being complete cheapskates and an absolute circus with no ambition. Understandable

Sorry you're right about Wednesday, I don't know how I missed them out, their predicament is so bad that it somehow skipped my mind. The only club in this division more poorly run than us and it looks like it's about to really catch up with them. Hull I think will react to the fright that they got in the final few weeks of last season and I don't think they'll be as bad again. I feel bad coming on here after a break and instantly being negative about the season before a ball has been kicked, but as usual it's all driven by off-the-field and it just feels eternal. 15 years of it.

Had a break from reading and posting on here for a few weeks. Came back on today to try and gauge the mood/optimism for this season amongst others. As time has gone on, I'm starting to feel pretty worried about this season. It feels like this division is going to be very strong with no one nailed on for relegation. I expect Charlton, Pompey and Oxford to struggle (not controversial). At this very moment I think our squad is stronger than all of theirs, but I'm not sure whether it will be by the end on the window, and I'm not sure if there is anyone else we're stronger than (maybe Preston, Wrexham, dependent on who else they bring in?). No CEO, no court case resolution, COO still pulling the strings and another exodus of our better players is making me jittery as we're getting closer to kick-off 😬

I think we'll eventually get enough players to field a team, because there will be enough people who simply want to play football. But I can't see us attracting any players with any serious ambition, women's football a much smaller world than men's football and our name will be the sh*t on everyone's shoe in that sport right now, we'll be tainted for years by this We're probably going to be cannon fodder in whatever lowly league we're playing in.

I was really looking forward to seeing this kit and I'm really underwhelmed. Last season's shirt is miles better. I might be tempted if they somehow pull a rabbit out of the hat for a one-off shirt like they did in 2000, but I ain't buying this one. Port Vale are also celebrating 150 years. A small but proud club, this is their anniversary shirt. Much better than ours.

Does it really matter who the next CEO is? Will it change anything in the long run? I'm not sure it will. We should be focusing on pressuring the owners to remove Pasha and then announce that the club is for sale.

I think the next step to that will be to get Pasha on his bike because while we don't know for sure, it seems very likely that he is the one keeping us from letting them know our views and is the one giving his version of events as opposed to everyone else's. Maybe they think we've forgiven them and think they're great for putting bare minimum in, they might not realise how much we want them to sell

People will be in for the job, no question. From the outside it's a prestigious, high paying role. Everyone thinks they can be the one to turn things round. Once they get in post and are hamstrung at every turn is where the problems will start (again). Same as with the last two head coaches.

There will be no shortage of takers for the new post because it's a high profile, high paying job. I hope they know what they're letting themselves in for when they start though because the club is a basket case. Ewood is going to end up a bear pit this season for anyone in the board room imo. Their name is just gonna end up added on to chants and banners about the owners, Pasha, et al

Just addressing the couple of people responding to my post above to iterate that I am also very pleased he has gone, my wildest dream is that he is the first domino in a chain that somehow results in Venkys selling the club in the next 12 months. Like others have also mentioned however, I'm a little worried about who is left on charge right now and who might be appointed. I hope they don't think him going will be some kind of sacrifice to appease us, coz it won't!

Hopefully Mr Pasha is next. I wonder what has triggered this. Just speculation, but I wonder whether SW was against what has happened with Rovers WFC and this has cause a significant rift, or a straw that broke camel's back? Maybe we'll never know. Maybe he'll be on a podcast with big Sam next week telling all 😄

Some of our fans defending this decision on social media are thick beyond comprehension. They are an absolute dream for the owners and directors.

Thanks Glen, you are one source online I do trust 👍👍

Sad that after 15 years of Venkys the only thing I can be positive about is who might be designing a football kit, but the Macron kits have been good quality and nice designs.

There has been a few strange rumours about the club and being leaked on to social media in the last couple of months e.g. Rooney coming in for Ismael. I'm getting very sceptical as a result. I wonder whether they are putting certain untrue stuff out to see who is leaking, or maybe to try and divide supporters, cause confusion and undermine the reliability of protestors. E.g. "you all accused us of doing X, this was never happening and we don't know where this baseless rumour came from". People need to be so careful with sticking to facts. There is always so much rubbish on social media. It almost goes without saying that we all hope this isn't true, we don't want longstanding servants who have given decades for this club to be sacked. If it is, more fuel on the fire.

Subscribed through Spotify recently and listened to this walking the dog yesterday, great episode. Keel up the good work 👍👍